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one year old won't sleep at night

Sherree - posted on 10/26/2009 ( 6 moms have responded )

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Since about 9 months, my baby has been sleeping the worst yet. She started waking up around 2 or 3 am and not wanting to sleep anymore. She wants to get up, go downstairs and play. She will be very cheery if someone takes her downstairs to play for a couple hours. This happens about 2 nights out of 7. The other nights she will probably make it through the night with maybe only 1 stint of having to be up rocking her for 1/2 hr or more, plus the rest of the night she wakes every 2 hours or so still to nurse back to sleep. The most she ever sleeps at a stretch is 3-4 hrs. The nights that she does do a stint of 3 or 4 hrs I know I'm going to be in trouble because when she wakes up after that at 3am or so, she is so rested, she feels like she wants to get up.

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Andria - posted on 11/01/2009

hi, im hearing your pain lol i have a 1yr old lil boy doing the same.

Lynsey - posted on 10/30/2009

my son also still wakes in night and wants to play but most times he wakes up cryin. i go to see to him my friend told me to try a pick up put back down, which i do it sometims works he will go back over after a cuddle.

Cori - posted on 10/27/2009

Although my daughter isn't intp playing in the middle of the night, she does wake up after 4 hours in the crib. She will fall back to sleep after nursing in our bedand will sleep as long as we sleep, but I don't know how to break her of the habit. I do let her fall asleep on her own in her crib, but she still won't soothe herself when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

Julie - posted on 10/27/2009

My son is 6 now but I remember having to shorten his naps/wake him up after an hour or so and eventually take away the morning nap so that he'd sleep thru the night. I don't remember at what age that was but 9-12 mos. sounds about right.

Apryl - posted on 10/27/2009

My son has a similar habit. He can sleep through the night maybe 3 times a week. On other nights, he will wake up after around 5 hours of sleep, and easily go back to sleep after being held for 10 - 20 minutes. Then, there are nights when he is wide awake at 3 am, and wants to play. I try to keep night-time quiet time, and keep him in bed with me when he's awake like this. It's not a time to be playing with toys, or having fun. So, he sits with me in bed until he falls asleep, and then I return him to his crib. If my husband is the one to pick him up, he will sit with him in the living room, and watch tv, but no playing is allowed. I also hope this pattern stops... and that he will eventually just stay asleep through the night more consistently. I'm not ready to let him cry it out, and work himself back to sleep, so I think I'm stuck doing what works best.

Minnie - posted on 10/26/2009

7,075

It's normal for her to still be waking to nurse. As it may be for the next year or two.

Every once in a while my daughter will go through stints where she thinks she can get up and play. But night time is for sleeping, so rather than go play we are quiet and nurse.

Obviously I don't leave her to cry herself to sleep- that's not being sensitive to her needs, but I don't swing the other way and let her romp around the living room either at 3am. So the rules are that we lie in bed and nurse. She can be awake, but she needs to stay lying down with me, and nursing is a great way to calm her frustrations of not being able to get up and play.

These things come and go. She'll settle down again, and then in another couple of months will be doing something else at night. That's just the way it is- go with the flow.